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Saturday, November 25, 2006

Creation of New England History Blog

Photo: Past days, Manning River

One of my core objectives in establishing the New England, Australia blog was to document and present the history of New England. In doing so, I also wanted to encourage discussion of New England history and historiography.

While I have written a quantity of straight historical material and have tried to build historical background into other posts, I have been finding that the purely historical material is getting lost in the broader sweep of this blog. So with some reluctance I have decided to establish a new blog, New England's History, dedicated just to New England history and historiography. I say with some reluctance because just at present I need another blog like I need a hole in the head!

I will continue to carry historical material on this blog as part of the broad New England story, but the new blog will allow a deeper focus on the purely historical material, thus making that more accessible. With time, I hope to add others to the blog team thus encouraging New England historiography.

I propose to begin by copying some of the historical material from this site to the new blog, allowing me to link things together in new ways in terms of both chronology and themes. Once this is completed I can begin to add new material drawn from this site as well other sources.

The specialist focus of the new blog means that I will not be using it for current commentary, nor will I be posting as frequently. I plan to put up an absolute maximum of three posts per week, allowing more time for people to read, absorb and hopefully participate. I also plan to run more material on historical methodology.

As with all these things, it will take time for the blog to build momentum and also define it full focus.

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About this blog

This blog is dedicated to the history, life and culture of Australia's New England, that part of Australia stretching from the Hunter Valley through to the Queensland border and incorporating the Hunter Valley, the Mid North Coast, the Northern Rivers, the New England Tablelands, Slopes and Western Plains.

While New England has still to achieve formal political identity, it has its own character and identity and is, in the words of the Australian poet A D Hope, an ideal in the heart and mind.